Right. But if you live near the edge of coverage, say 280 miles, and your friend lives another 70 miles out, he could be 350 miles from the nearest base statio

Right. But if you live near the edge of coverage, say 280 miles, and your friend lives another 70 miles out, he could be 350 miles from the nearest base station. I know this is an oversimplification of the issue. But maybe the friend would be connected to a different ground station, that happened to be full.